Yellow Suns
by The Knave of Northland
Summary: "And it was then that I realized that alternate universes are only an illusion to distract us. And so the five yellow suns in my world died just as I did, their smiles fading into darkness." Written for Starvation's May one-shot challenge.


**This was written for Starvation's May One-shot Challenge. Prompt: "Alternate Universe" **

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"**Yellow Suns"**

Mama used to tell me about worlds she made up in her head. There was one with some kind of creatures called unicorns, one where people could walk on the air, and a world where animals could talk. My sister would draw pictures of other worlds that she had fashioned inside her own mind, and I soon followed. Of course I would, it was fun to experiment with the small sketch tablet that I could draw on with my fingers and make all sorts of garish artwork. I always made a world with lots of yellow, it was my favorite color. One of the worlds I made up had five bright yellow suns. She began calling these little worlds we made up "alternate universes."

Alternate universes were a popular idea in the Capitol, and I would share my designs with my friends. We always enjoyed making worlds where there wasn't any school, rain, or boys. They would use a multitude of colors on their sketch tablets, mixing the pinks, greens, and oranges together. But I would draw my yellow suns with large smiley faces on each of them. We never grew tired of it. In fact, as the idea of alternate universes spread throughout the Capitol, our teacher told us to make up a universe of our own. Tiria made up a world where people didn't fight, and Callisto created a place where everything was made up of food. "Liana, why don't you go next?" My teacher said.

"Alright," I grabbed the small tablet that I had been coloring on in my hands and proudly walked up to the front of the classroom, "My world has five suns. It isn't ever night there, 'cause there are too many suns for them all to go down at the same time. There are yellow flowers all over the ground and everyone wears yellow."

My teacher took the screen and looked over my drawing. "Very good work, Liana," she smiled down at me, "People can still go outside at night in your world."

"Yep!" I exclaimed, "An' they don't have to sleep, either."

"But you need sleep."

"Not in this universe, you don't. You get to stay awake all the time."

I can remember returning home that day, the small sketch tablet in my hands. Mama seemed scared about something when I got home, she said that the rebels were going to try and attack us. I didn't understand, though, why would they want to destroy the Capitol? Everybody and everything was so nice and pretty looking. Daddy told me that they thought it was unfair that we got to have pretty colors in the Capitol and they didn't.

"Why don't they have colors?" I asked.

Daddy explained, "They're being punished, Liana, just like we punish you when you disobey us. They wanted to hurt us before so we took away their colors until they could behave. That's why we have the Hunger Games, it's fun for us to watch, but the districts are being taught a lesson. We're here for them and they were ungrateful and disrespectful."

I wondered if there was another world where the districts were nice and had bright colors and no Hunger Games. But the games were fun to watch, I always liked the ones from District 1, since they gave us pretty things like gemstones. They blew up the arena when I was watching them, after my favorite tributes got killed. I had nightmares the night that happened.

We didn't talk about the rebels anymore, they scared me. Besides, my birthday was coming, and I couldn't be afraid on my birthday. At least, that was my parents' reasoning. I already knew what I wanted for my birthday, too. They had just invented a machine that simulated a world of your own design. They let you spend time in that world for a whole day. I wanted to go to my sunny little universe, and that was all I wanted for a present. It wasn't too much, and I knew they would let my sister do it, too. I wanted to feel the warm sunshine on my face and play in the bright meadows that I had imagined.

The day my birthday came, Mama baked me a lemon flavored cake and coated with thick frosting. She let me eat two slices while everyone else had one. After the sick feeling of overeating finally left me, my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Thinking that they had forgotten, I responded, "I was hoping I could go that machine that sends you to another world."

Mama and Daddy exchanged a wary glance, and I immediately knew that they had not gotten me tickets for it. "I'm sorry, Liana, dear, that machine is brand new and we tried to get tickets for it, but we weren't able to get any; they were sold out. But we did get you some other presents, is that okay?"

My face immediately fell and lowered my head, "Yeah, I guess."

Daddy and my sister went to another room to get me my presents while I sat on the couch and sulked. I'd been waiting so eagerly to use the machine, Tiria had been bragging all week that her parents took her for her birthday party—the party I wasn't invited to. "Liana, I'm so sorry that we couldn't get you what you wanted. We'll get some tickets as soon as possible, okay?"

"'Kay," I replied soberly.

"Happy Birthday, my little Liana!" Daddy busted through the door, carrying three garishly decorated boxes.

A smile quickly appeared on my face and I jumped up so that I could tear open the boxes. The first box held a large stuffed cat, which I held tightly in my arms as I ripped open the second present. That one had a new sketch tablet complete with a new set of colors programmed into it. But the third one was my favorite: a lemon yellow raincoat. I put the stuffed cat down and put the raincoat on, even though it was bright and sunny outside. Mama laughed when I did that, "Wait until a rainy day to wear it, Liana, you don't want to get it dirty."

"Yes, Mama," I said, quickly changing out of it.

But secretly I still wanted to visit the machine that would send me to my fantasy world, it just wasn't the birthday I had been hoping for. I quickly folded up my coat and went to hang it up in my closet before I started drawing the universe in my head on my sketch tablet. If I couldn't experience it, I could still imagine it, right?

A few weeks later, I walked into the living room and saw Finnick Odair on the television! I ran in to see what he was saying, but Mama pulled me right out of the room. "He isn't saying very nice things, Liana, I don't want you to hear them."

"Why not?"

She sighed, "Finnick's a rebel, honey, they're getting into our televisions somehow. I don't want you turning it on by yourself anymore, okay? Your daddy and I don't want you to hear the bad things they're saying, alright?"

"O-okay, Mama."

I walked out of the room clutching my stuffed cat as a sick feeling rose in my stomach. Why were they still trying to hurt us? And what about the others? I used to like Katniss and Peeta, but then they ran away from us. Finnick used to be one of my favorites, too; Daddy says that it's thanks to the Capitol that he's so famous. So why did they hate us so much if we helped them? All we did was help them, and punish them when they needed it. Still upset by what I'd heard, I hid in my room and amused myself by drawing more worlds with my sketch tablet. Looking up, I saw my yellow raincoat waiting for a rainy day. "Don't worry, I'll wear you soon," I said to the coat, and then went back to drawing one of the five, large, yellow suns.

More days passed, and I wasn't allowed to watch the television anymore, neither was my sister. Then one night Daddy woke me up. "Liana, you need to wake up," he said, "the rebels are here."

"Huh?" I was still half in sleep-land and half awake.

"Get up and get your yellow coat, it's raining outside."

Eyes still bleary from sleep, I dressed myself and pulled on the shiny raincoat. Daddy's words didn't fully make sense to my foggy brain, but I did as he told me to. I wanted to take my cat and sketch tablet with me, but Mama told me to leave them here, since they would "slow us down." Tears sprang up in my eyes as I began to realize what was really happening. The rebels from District 13 were in the city, and there were going to kill us if we let them.

We hurried out the door into the pouring rain and followed a crowd of people heading for safety. I held Daddy's hand as he we walked down the streets, waiting for the morning to come. When it did, everything was a dark gray without any sunshine. As we walked, I imagined my different world, this time it didn't have any rebels in it, so my family and I were safe. The multiple suns were still smiling down on us like guardian angels, keeping the darkness away.

Then I noticed something strange, some odd looking people. They looked like people from the Capitol, but one looked familiar. "Daddy, look," I glanced in the direction of one of the people, "I think I can see Katniss."

Daddy shook his head, "We would know if Katniss was here, honey. It's probably just somebody that looks like her."

But I knew something was different about her and the others with her. I stared at the girl that looked like Katniss, trying to figure out if my eyes were lying or not. She looked my way and looked a little surprised to see me watching her. I quickly looked away, it was rude to stare. Instead, I went back to fantasizing about my own little world. In it, since there were no rebels, Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick were all good, they didn't want to hurt us.

Suddenly, a scream split through the air, reaching my ears. Daddy tightened his grip on my hand as Mama's screams joined them. The sounds of gunfire and angry shouts mixed together as we tried to duck. My sister screeched as Mama fell to the ground, blood pouring from a hole in her head. "Get down, both of you!" Daddy cried, reaching out for my sister's hand.

Then a felt something, like a tiny foot had kicked me in my chest hard enough to puncture my skin and bones. My breath immediately left me and pain like I had never felt shot through my nerves. "Liana!" Daddy and my sister screamed in unison.

Darkness overcame me as I fell to the ground, noticing something red running down my lemon yellow raincoat. And it was then that I realized that alternate universes are only an illusion to distract us. And so the five yellow suns in my world died just as I did, their smiles fading into darkness.


End file.
